


Prehistory

by forthedefenseyourhonor



Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 16:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5878012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forthedefenseyourhonor/pseuds/forthedefenseyourhonor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt & Foggy take a trip to the American Museum of Natural History to escape the summer heat.<br/>Mainly inspired by those funny little model dinosaurs in their office at Landman & Zack and set in the summer of their second year of law school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prehistory

A wave of hot air rolled across the park towards where Matt and Foggy were sprawled on a soft woollen blanket. It brought with it the sounds and smells of the city in summer; the charcoal-tinged smoke from a group of students on the opposite bank of the lake cooking burgers on a disposable barbecue, the yelling and laughter of children playing at the water’s edge, and the distant echoes of tinny music from an ice cream truck. The last three weeks had been spent cooped up in the library revising and then being herded from hall to hall to sit their finals so as soon as the last exam paper had been collected they had made for the freedom and fresh air of Central Park. Matt smiled and sat up, resting his chin on his knees. Beside him Foggy was stretched out on his back, one arm shielding his eyes from the sun, wriggling his toes into the grass at the edge of the blanket. It was just after midday and the sun was beating down from high in the sky. The warm wind offered no relief from the blistering sun but neither of them had any desire to head back to the dorm room any time soon. Three weeks of accumulated mess and dirty dishes awaited their return and so they had vowed to stick it out in the park for as long as possible.

“Jesus,” Foggy said as he sat up slowly, “I'm practically cooking here.”

  
“So _that’s_ what I can smell,” Matt laughed.

  
Foggy shoved him gently, chuckling. He hummed very slightly in the way Matt knew he did when he was thinking carefully about something. Matt inclined his head towards Foggy, waiting for him to say the words he was clearly formulating.

  
“You wanna go to a museum?”

  
Matt turned to face Foggy and laughed. He wasn't entirely sure what he’d been expecting Foggy to say but that definitely wasn't it.

  
“What?”

  
“Well museums are always cool and dark, y’know to stop the sun damaging the exhibits,” Foggy said with a touch of defensiveness. “I just thought it might be a fun way to spend a couple of hours out of the sun without having to face the literal mountain of dishes we've got at home.”

  
He shifted slightly.

  
“It was just an idea, never mind.”

  
“No, we should go,” Matt smiled and ran his hand over the back of his neck. The heat radiating from his skin told him he was already starting to burn in the summer sun. “Which museum?”

  
Foggy fiddled absent-mindedly with a strand of hair. He was obviously thinking.

  
“Well, no offence, but there’s probably not a lot of point in going to an art gallery.”

  
Matt laughed.

  
“So how about the Museum of Natural History? They’ll have stuff you can touch and Braille information cards. Or maybe those handheld tour guide things you can listen to!”

  
Foggy was fidgety with excitement now and Matt could hear that he was smiling widely.

  
“Sure,” he said, returning Foggy’s smile, “But I'm not getting an audio tour, I'm sure your descriptions will be vastly more entertaining, if not entirely factually correct.”

  
Foggy laughed.

  
“Deal!”

  
He stood up and took hold of Matt’s outstretched hand, pulling him to his feet. He rolled up the blanket and stuffed it roughly into his backpack as Matt unfolded his cane. Matt took hold of Foggy’s arm and they set off down the grassy slope and over the footbridge they had walked across earlier. Foggy directed them into the shade provided by the large trees on either side of the footpath. It was not much cooler in the shade but they were both quietly grateful to be out of the sun. They wound their way back through the park and towards the museum. 

Matt had only been to the museum once before. His father had never had much time for days out but they had always done something special on Matt’s birthdays; they had gone to the American Museum of Natural History when he had turned eight. Most of the details of the day had long since been lost from memory but he could recall with perfect clarity how he had stood in awe in front of the trunk of the giant sequoia. The tree had been more than a thousand years old when it was felled and he had stood for a long time trying to count the individual rings, despite the museum having labelled them. Matt smiled to himself at the memory.

  
“What are you grinning about?” Foggy asked.

  
“Oh, I just remembered when I went to the museum when I was a kid I tried to count the rings on the giant sequoia.”

  
Foggy laughed.

  
“I don’t even think I ever stopped to look at the stuff about trees,” he shrugged, “I just used to drag everyone straight to the dinosaurs.”

  
They reached the edge of the park and headed towards the museum entrance. As they climbed the wide steps up to the doors Matt could hear the murmurs of the visitors inside. Their voices echoed and moved in strange ways off of marble and metal and glass. The gentle reverberations reminded him of church. They moved forward into the high ceilinged atrium and joined a queue to buy tickets. Foggy was bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet as their line moved slowly toward the ticket desk.

  
“So, which bit do you wanna go to first?”

  
Matt shrugged.

  
“Well the dinosaurs are your favorite, right?” he started, “So it’s up to you – do you want to see them first or save the best ‘til last?”

  
Before Foggy could answer, the attendant called them forward. Dutifully, they both produced their student cards, paid their reduced fare, and moved into the cool shade of the inner hall of the museum.

  
“So, which is it?” Matt asked as Foggy paused to collect a map of the exhibits.

  
“I think dinosaurs last,” he unfolded the map. “There’s so much stuff I don’t even think I’ve ever seen!”

  
Matt smiled and allowed Foggy to lead him to their first destination. The air being steadily moved through the museum by the air conditioners was cool and caused the hairs on Matt’s arm to raise, though the chill was welcome after the stifling heat of the outdoors. Underneath his fingers he felt goose pimples raise on Foggy’s arm. They made their way into a large hall and Matt could hear the voices of excited children bouncing strangely around the room, giving him an impression of odd shapes suspended above them.

  
“Good afternoon and welcome to the Foggy Nelson guided tour of the American Museum of Natural History,” Foggy announced in his best impression of a tour guide. “First up: the Hall of Biodiversity.”

  
Matt laughed.

  
“Man, I don’t even remember this room...I must have missed out so much when I was a kid!”

  
Foggy dragged them excitedly towards one side of the hall and Matt stood quietly as he peered through the glass of the cabinet they were stood in front of. Matt let the sounds of the hall wash over him, taking in the way voices and soft footsteps moved and reflected from all the different surfaces. He was straining slightly, still trying to work out what the objects hanging from the ceiling were without attracting Foggy’s attention. He shifted his weight slightly and felt Foggy jerk around to face him again.

  
“Shit! Sorry, dude, I got carried away,” Foggy sounded genuinely sorry for leaving Matt for even a moment without his improvised audio tour. “So, um, Hall of Biodiversity...well it’s a pretty big room-"

  
“Some might call it a hall...”

  
“-ha ha, very funny,” Foggy shoved him slightly as they moved away from the first display. “There’s loads of little glass cabinets with all sorts in. There’s bugs and birds and fish and everything in-between. The ceiling’s really high – I guess you can probably hear that a little – but they’ve got all these life-size model sea creatures hanging from the ceiling.”

  
Ah, Matt thought, that would explain it. He had no real point of reference for sea creatures in the sense with which he now experienced the world around him. Now that he knew what the shapes were meant to be, the fins and tails of sharks and sting-rays swam into being above him. Matt smiled and Foggy continued enthusiastically describing the displays around them. They spent a long time huddled in front of a case of insects. Foggy described in detail how the butterflies and beetles gleamed in the bright lights of the display; how their colours shifted as he tilted his head, from deep ocean blue to emerald green and from burnished red to bright gold. Gradually they made their way around the rest of the hall, Foggy reading the placards in front of each cabinet and awaiting Matt’s decision on the things he wanted described in greater detail. They allowed themselves to be moved and buffeted along by the flow of other visitors, Matt keeping his hand firmly nestled in the crook of Foggy’s arm and keeping close by his side as excited children pushed past, dragging their parents to and fro, from case to case.

  
“Ooh, time for the next hall!” Foggy said, placing his hand on top of the one Matt had on his arm as he moved them excitedly into the next room. “Next up on our grand tour: the hall of North American Forests! This must be where the giant sequoia is, right?”

  
“I think it must be."

  
A feeling of melancholy swept over him as they moved further into the depths of the museum. Although he could detect the subtle smells of the hall more acutely now than he ever could when he had visited as a child he could remember them distinctly: dried pine and cracked tree sap and chemical preservatives. Concentrating, he could recall a vague images of the hall as it had been when he had walked through it all those years ago holding his father’s hand. He wondered if it had changed much since then.

  
“Hey,” Foggy said quietly, “You OK, buddy?”

  
Matt became suddenly aware of how tightly he was now holding Foggy’s arm.

  
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Sorry,” he lied and he relinquished his grip slightly.

  
He could feel Foggy’s gaze boring into him as they moved past the first diorama and he made an almost inaudible noise that Matt generally took to mean Foggy was rolling his eyes at him, but nothing else was said.

  
“Woah,” Foggy said, stopping so suddenly that Matt bumped slightly into the back of him.

  
“What is it?” Matt enquired.

  
He could tell, however, that they were now facing the slice of giant sequoia he had stood, awestruck, in front of all those years ago. Foggy stepped closer to the low barrier that enclosed the trunk and leaned forward, obviously reading the date marks on the rings of the tree.

  
“It’s the sequoia,” he said softly.

It was much quieter in this corner of the museum. Matt guessed that a lot of the kids visiting the museum probably did the same as Foggy had when he was younger and skipped the ‘boring’ plant section of the museum in favor of the vastly more exciting dinosaurs and mammals.

Foggy let out a low whistle, “Says here the tree was over three hundred feet tall before it was cut down! I had no idea trees could even get that big!”

  
Matt smiled and made a small noise of agreement. He let go of Foggy’s arm and fiddled with the handle of his cane whilst Foggy continued to peer at the dates inscribed on the smooth surface of the tree trunk. The memory of the giant tree had seemed so clear out in the park but now that he was here it seemed distant and murky. He could only sense a great expanse of blank space in front of him. He could not detect any of the details that he knew had been present when he had seen the trunk: the cracks running through the wood where it had dried and aged; the deep crevices that ran through the thick, fire-resistant bark; the centennial markers next to their corresponding rings and the notable historic events that had occurred at that time. Matt sniffed quietly and pushed his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose. Foggy looked around at the noise.

  
“Can you remember it?” Foggy’s voice was not much more than a whisper, but it carried with perfect clarity in the quiet of the hall.

  
“Uh, sorta,” Matt shrugged, “It was a long time ago.”

  
“Well it’s probably-” Foggy puffed out his cheeks, clearly thinking, “-I dunno, maybe twice as tall as you are. The bark is probably two inches thick, it’s amazing that this is a plant, Matt – a plant!”

  
Foggy shook him slightly for emphasis and Matt began to break into a smile despite himself.

  
“It’s got dates on here as well next to the ring from that year and historical events that happened at the time...pick your favourite century, I’ll tell you what the tree witnessed!”

  
Matt laughed, “Uhh, fourteen hundred, please!”

  
“Well, let’s see,” Foggy leaned in, “ ‘Geoffrey Chaucer died’...hm, not so cheerful. Pick again!”

  
“Ah, let’s try one thousand A.D.”

  
“Hmm...’Citadel at Zimbabwe begun; Chinese perfected gunpowder’. Much better!”

  
Matt inclined his head towards Foggy, smiling more broadly now.

  
“You know how I feel about explosions, Foggy.”

  
They laughed and Matt took hold of Foggy’s arm again. They moved away from the sequoia as a group of school children were ushered into the hall and began to cluster excitedly around the trunk of the giant tree. They continued around the rest of the museum, slowly working their way up the floors. Foggy provided Matt with as much detail as he could; he described cavemen and their paintings, huge colourful geodes and glimmering pieces of meteorite, clay pots and plates from ancient civilizations, and stuffed animals from plains and forests around the world. He gave up reading the placards very quickly, choosing to skip over the dry scientific details they provided and describing instead the colors and textures and shapes contained behind the glass. Matt found that he was not particularly bothered about the content, scientific or otherwise, of Foggy’s descriptions. He was content merely to hear the eagerness with which they were given. Most people, temporary friends and ex-girlfriends and -boyfriends, had quickly lost enthusiasm for the task of providing a real-life audio description track for everything they did. It had pained Matt to not be able to tell them that he didn’t really need their help, and so he had listened as boredom and exasperation had crept into their voices until they had drifted away altogether. There was never a hint of this in Foggy’s presence, however. His descriptions seamlessly filled the gaps that even the most acute of Matt's senses could not and he seemed to relish the task.

  
Matt had lost track of time somewhat and so he let go of Foggy’s arm briefly as they came to the top of a set stairs to run his fingers over the face of his watch. They had been in the museum for nearly three hours but at last they had reached the top floor and, Foggy insisted, the museum’s _pièce de résistance_ : the dinosaurs. Foggy practically dragged him into the hall. He had said nothing but Matt could tell there was a smile plastered across his face and Matt found himself grinning as well. He felt that he might miss out on some of Foggy's more detailed descriptions in this hall; no one was being allowed to linger particularly long in front of the displays due to the flow of visitors around them moving ever forward. They joined the current of babbling children and exasperated sounding parents and allowed themselves to be moved forward between the towering fossilised skeletons. All those trips to the museum as a kid appeared to have had, to Matt's slight surprise, an incredibly educational effect on Foggy. He knew the names and facts about all of the dinosaurs without needing to look at the placards, something that Matt was quickly caught verifying as he ran his fingers over the single line of Braille on the plinth in front of what Foggy had just informed him was a _Barosaurus_.

  
"What the hell, Murdock?" Foggy gasped in faux-indignation, "Do you doubt my encyclopaedic dino-knowledge?"

  
Matt quickly withdrew his hand from the sign.

  
"What? Oh, no, I was just checking..."

  
Foggy let out a 'hmph' and then chortled slightly. Matt felt himself blushing.

  
"Sorry," he shrugged.

 

"God, Matt, don't be so serious," Foggy laughed. "Believe me, even I wouldn't usually trust my knowledge on anything science related but I promise I'm not feeding you misinformation - dinosaurs are my _jam_."

  
Matt smiled, still feeling warmth in his cheeks, and moved closer to Foggy as the people behind them pushed forwards. Along with the rest of the crowd, they meandered their way through the remainder of the dinosaur displays, Foggy keeping up his impressive audio descriptions the entire way round. They found themselves back at the staircase leading back to the rest of the museum and Foggy sighed.

  
"Well," he said, turning to face Matt, "I guess it's time to head home and face the harsh reality of washing clothes and doing dishes."

  
"Unfortunately so," Matt said as they began to descend to the lower floors. "Coming to the museum was definitely a good call though."

  
"Well, what can I say? I'm a genius!"

  
They both laughed and continued down the stairs. Before they reached the exit Foggy announced that he needed to use the bathroom and so Matt deposited himself on a marble bench and observed the ebb and flow of people moving around him whilst he waited. After a couple of minutes he picked out the familiar rhythm of Foggy's heartbeat bobbing back through the crowd towards where he sat.

  
"Hey," Foggy announced his return with a gentle hand on Matt's shoulder.

  
"Hey," Matt replied as he stood up. He placed his hand on Foggy's forearm, "Thanks for describing all that stuff for me. I really appreciate it."

  
Foggy smiled.

  
"Not a problem, buddy. You know me, any excuse to hear my own voice," he chuckled. "Anyway, I got you a present. Hold out your hand."

  
Matt pulled a face as he held out his hand in slight trepidation.

 

"I sincerely hope that this is _not_ something from the bathroom..."

  
Foggy laughed.

  
"I know it's probably, like, super immoral to sneak away from a blind guy but I made a slight detour through the gift shop on my way back."

  
He dropped a small plastic tube into Matt's outstretched hand and took the cane from his other to allow him to work the lid off of one end. Matt gently tipped the tube into the palm of his hand and felt some thing small and hard fall into his hand. He rolled the object to the tips of fingers, exploring the sharp edges and details of the brittle plastic. He grinned at Foggy as he worked out what he was holding.

  
" _T. rex_ , am I right?"

 

"Yes! We'll make a palaeontologist of you yet, Murdock!"

  
Matt laughed as he popped the tiny dinosaur back into the tube and took his cane back from Foggy.

  
"The colours may not be entirely historically accurate," Foggy said as Matt took hold of his arm again and he began to lead them towards the exit and back out into the heat of the afternoon sun. "But at least now you've got a touchy-feely element to accompany my fantastic audio tour!"

  
Matt laughed.

 

"Thanks, buddy."

* * *

  
The sun was still high in the sky as they left the museum but there was now a slightly cooler breeze that took the edge off the heat. They made their way slowly back through the city, choosing to walk along the edge of the park instead of catching the bus which they had both agreed would be a hot and sweaty nightmare of a journey. They arrived home and Foggy decided that what was really needed to complete the end-of-finals-celebration was beers and Jurassic Park. He left Matt in the dorm room whilst he hurried down to the liquor store not far from their dorm. Matt listened to Foggy's footsteps moving away down the corridor and stairs and out onto the sidewalk until he could no longer hear them. Sitting at his desk, he removed the cap from the tube containing the model dinosaurs and tipped them out onto the cluttered tabletop. He carefully stood them upright behind his refreshable Braille display. He had already identified the _T. rex_ but there was also a _Triceratops_ , a _Pterosaur_ , and two other two-legged dinosaurs that Foggy had informed him were called _Pachycephalosaurus_ and _Parasaurolophus_. He smiled to himself as he ran his fingers over each of the dinosaurs in turn. Foggy had spent a good portion of the walk home telling him how the sets of dinosaurs he had bought from the museum when he was a child had contained a mixture of dinosaurs from different geologic periods and what a travesty it was to provide such misinformation in a place that was supposed to be educational. Matt had laughed and told him he didn't think most children cared about such inaccuracies which had prompted a slightly unexpected and impassioned five minute rant from Foggy about the importance of science education for children.

  
Foggy arrived back with beer and microwaveable lasagnes for their dinner. They sat close together at the head of Foggy's bed, with Foggy's laptop balanced precariously on a heavy law book between them. Foggy slotted his Jurassic Park DVD into the disk drive and hit play. Between mouthfuls of lasagne he launched into a vivid and detailed audio description which rapidly lapsed into gushing over the quality of the special effects and rants over the inaccuracies of the species of dinosaurs featured in the film. Matt didn't mind. He knocked back the last of his bottle of beer and moved in slightly closer to Foggy, letting the sound of his voice wash over him and feeling, for the first time in a long time, that he was truly home.

**Author's Note:**

> I fully intended this to be a short, fun little fic about how Matt and Foggy ended up with those colorful model dinosaurs but it somehow evolved into something several thousand words long.  
> Tagged as fluff and angst but the angst is really only very minor (can I ever write Matt Murdock without angst?)


End file.
